Diagnóstico pedagógico : diagnóstico de las competencias en lenguaje verbal escrito y matemáticas en educación primaria.

Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Revisión bibliográfica internacional sobre dificultades de aprendizaje : manuales.

Recopilación bibliográfica que estudia los manuales básicos sobre dificultades de aprendizaje (DA) en general y en concreto, de dificultades de aprendizaje del lenguaje (DAL), de dificultades de la lectura y/o escritura (DALE) o de dificultades de aprendizaje de las matemáticas (DAM). Se ofrece un cuadro resumen, y un análisis detallado, de manuales básicos sobre DA, que explica si se trata de un manual general o específico; si relaciona las dificultades de aprendizaje con el sistema educativo en general y/o con la educación especial en particular; si consiste en un enfoque con predominio neuropsicológico y/ o clínico o, es cognitivo y/o conceptual y/o instruccional. Después, se examinan los enfoques que predominan en los manuales sobre dificultades de aprendizaje en relación con la procedencia, europea y americana, de sus autores. Por último, se incluyen dos anexos: el primero, con los manuales especialmente recomendados y el segundo, con fuentes de información y organizaciones profesionales sobre dificultades de aprendizaje.

Dificultades específicas del aprendizaje de las matemáticas en los primeros años de la escolaridad : detección precoz y características evolutivas.

Se pretende enmarcar las dificultades de aprendizaje en matemáticas (DAM) dentro del contexto de las dificultades de aprendizaje, revisar de forma amplia la bibliografía sobre las DAM, tanto sus características en edades tempranas como las explicaciones causales de las mismas, desarrollar una prueba de competencia matemática de fácil aplicación y sencilla reproducción, establecer unos criterios que permitan a los equipos psicopedagógicos realizar una detección precoz que diferencie dentro de los niños con retraso en matemáticas a los que realmente presentarán en el futuro dificultades de aprendizaje, mediante un sistema de detección que no lleve consigo tener que esperar a que fallen en el sistema educativo para intervenir y constatar si en edades tempranas podemos observar alguna tipología de dificultades de aprendizaje. La muestra está compuesta por 32 niños de colegios públicos y concertados de Valladolid capital, Laguna de Duero y el sector del EOEP de Tordesillas, seleccionados de entre aquellos alumnos que, a juicio de sus tutores y profesores, podían llegar a presentar dificultades matemáticas. Se llevaron a cabo dos estudios longitudinales de dos cohortes distintas, con el fin de conocer la evolución de la competencia curricular de los niños de Educación primaria en función de que presenten o no dificultades de aprendizaje, combinando el diseño transversal y el diseño longitudinal. Los instrumentos utilizados son la guía de observación del tutor y una prueba PRECUMAT con tres niveles curriculares subdividida en pruebas más específicas. Las conclusiones obtenidas apuntan a que los profesores son buenos jueces a la hora de determinar si un alumno presenta DAM, el grupo de niños con DAM presentaban al inicio de ciclo una ejecución inferior a la de los niños normales en la puntuación total de competencia curricular y en cada una de las subpruebas, la asociación entre dificultades matemáticas y competencia lectora baja se observó en el 37,5 por ciento de los casos; además será necesario prestar especial atención a las niñas en edades tempranas, ya que su mejor rendimiento en lectura podría impedir descubrir su DAM por sus profesores. Se ratifica la existencia de efecto Matthew (los niños con buenas habilidades lectoras desarrollan otras habilidades cognitivas) y no se ha probado la relación entre las dificultades de aprendizaje y los déficits visoespaciales o lingüísticos.

Mallard Use of Hen HousesTM in Eastern Ontario

Nesting structures for ground-nesting waterfowl may be an effective technique for increasing nesting success in regions in which nest success is below the 15% threshold needed to maintain a stable population. We studied the occupancy rate of artificial nesting structures called hen housesTM by Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) nesting in two different wetland habitats, beaver ponds and sewage lagoons, in eastern Ontario during 1999–2001. We hypothesized that, because natural cover was sparse on sewage lagoons, Mallards would occupy hen houses at a higher rate on sewage lagoons than on beaver ponds. However, of the 248 hen houses distributed between beaver ponds and sewage lagoons, none was occupied by waterfowl. Common Grackles (Quiscalus quiscula) were the only avian species that nested in hen houses. However, Mallards successfully nested directly under several structures (n = 6) when water levels were low enough to expose the ground beneath them. Mayfield daily nest survival estimates for Mallards nesting in natural cover were similar on sewage lagoons and beaver ponds for all years (mean = 0.99) and were higher than most published estimates. Factors such as nesting cover, predation pressures, and structure design and material may influence the use of artificial hen houses and should be considered when planning a hen house program outside of the Prairie Pothole Region.

Modelling impacts of pollution in river systems: a new dispersion model and a case study of mine discharges in the Abrud, Aries and Mures river system in Transylvania, Romania

A new model of dispersion has been developed to simulate the impact of pollutant discharges on river systems. The model accounts for the main dispersion processes operating in rivers as well as the dilution from incoming tributaries and first-order kinetic decay processes. The model is dynamic and simulates the hourly behaviour of river flow and pollutants along river systems. The model has been applied to the Aries and Mures River System in Romania and has been used to assess the impacts of potential dam releases from the Roia Montan Mine in Transylvania, Romania. The question of mine water release is investigated under a range of scenarios. The impacts on pollution levels downstream at key sites and at the border with Hungary are investigated.

Mapping quantitative trait loci for flag leave senescence as a yield determinant in winter wheat under optimal and drought stressed environments

The timing of flag leaf senescence (FLS) is an important determinant of yield under stress and optimal environments. A doubled haploid population derived from crossing the photo period-sensitive variety Beaver,with the photo period-insensitive variety Soissons, varied significantly for this trait, measured as the percent green flag leaf area remaining at 14 days and 35 days after anthesis. This trait also showed a significantly positive correlation with yield under variable environmental regimes. QTL analysis based on a genetic map derived from 48 doubled haploid lines using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, revealed the genetic control of this trait. The coincidence of QTL for senescence on chromosomes 2B and 2D under drought-stressed and optimal environments, respectively, indicate a complex genetic mechanism of this trait involving the re-mobilisation of resources from the source to the sink during senescence.

The eMinerals project: developing the concept of the virtual organisation to support collaborative work on molecular-scale environmental simulations

The eMinerals project has established an integrated compute and data minigrid infrastructure together with a set of collaborative tools,. The infrastructure is designed to support molecular simulation scientists working together as a virtual organisation aiming to understand a number of strategic processes in environmental science. The eMinerals virtual organisation is now working towards applying this infrastructure to tackle a new generation of scientific problems. This paper describes the achievements of the eMinerals virtual organisation to date, and describes ongoing applications of the virtual organisation infrastructure.

Collaborative grid infrastructure for molecular simulations: The eMinerals minigrid as a prototype integrated computer and data grid

This paper describes a prototype grid infrastructure, called the eMinerals minigrid, for molecular simulation scientists. which is based on an integration of shared compute and data resources. We describe the key components, namely the use of Condor pools, Linux/Unix clusters with PBS and IBM's LoadLeveller job handling tools, the use of Globus for security handling, the use of Condor-G tools for wrapping globus job submit commands, Condor's DAGman tool for handling workflow, the Storage Resource Broker for handling data, and the CCLRC dataportal and associated tools for both archiving data with metadata and making data available to other workers.

Approximate Riemann solutions of the two-dimensional shallow-water equations

A finite-difference scheme based on flux difference splitting is presented for the solution of the two-dimensional shallow-water equations of ideal fluid flow. A linearised problem, analogous to that of Riemann for gasdynamics, is defined and a scheme, based on numerical characteristic decomposition, is presented for obtaining approximate solutions to the linearised problem. The method of upwind differencing is used for the resulting scalar problems, together with a flux limiter for obtaining a second-order scheme which avoids non-physical, spurious oscillations. An extension to the two-dimensional equations with source terms, is included. The scheme is applied to a dam-break problem with cylindrical symmetry.

Efficient shock capturing for isentropic flows using arithmetic averaging

A shock capturing scheme is presented for the equations of isentropic flow based on upwind differencing applied to a locally linearized set of Riemann problems. This includes the two-dimensional shallow water equations using the familiar gas dynamics analogy. An average of the flow variables across the interface between cells is required, and this average is chosen to be the arithmetic mean for computational efficiency, leading to arithmetic averaging. This is in contrast to usual ‘square root’ averages found in this type of Riemann solver where the computational expense can be prohibitive. The scheme is applied to a two-dimensional dam-break problem and the approximate solution compares well with those given by other authors.